Birkirkara start against Olimpia Cluj

Birkirkara will get their women’s UEFA Champions League quali-fying round going with a match against Romania’s Olimpia Cluj-Napoca this evening at the Cen-tenary Stadium (kick-off: 8 p.m.).

The Maltese champions, who won the bidding to host the quadrangular Group Three here for the first time, will also play SU 1° Dezembro, of Portugal, and Northern Ireland’s Glentoran Belfast next week in Ta’ Qali.

The Stripes are making their third appearance in the competition, looking to produce a more com-mendable showing than their pre-vious two outings.

Birkirkara made their Champions League debut in 2008.

That year they finished bottom of the qualifying group which featured Italy’s Barbolino, Athletic Bilbao (Spain) and Slovenia hosts KRKA Novo Mesto. The Stripes conceded 37 goals and netted just one.

Three years later, Birkirkara again took part in the qualifying tourna-ment and were drawn in the same group with Brondby (Denmark), Cardiff City (Wales) and SU 1° Dezembro.

The Stripes again failed to win any points, this time letting in 26 goals and scoring another single goal in the process.

“We are aware of another difficult challenge in our group this year,” Birkirkara coach Johann Scicluna said.

“The three other teams are very competent but I feel our football has improved considerably since our last showing in the Cham-pions League.

“We had a very useful pre-season and now we want to do well and improve on our previous showings in the tournament.”

Scicluna has retained the same group of players that won the league title last season. He also boasts 12 players in his squad who are in the national team set-up.

Birkirkara will also have Malta defender Kirsty Feasy, who plies her trade in the English league, avail-able for the tournament between today and next Thursday.

Competition kicks off at the Centenary Stadium this evening with the match between SU 1° Dezembro and Glentoran Belfast at 5.30 p.m.

Two other matches, also at the Centenary Stadium, will be played on Monday – Birkirkara vs SU 1° Dezembro (5.30 p.m.) and Olimpia Cluj vs Glentoran (8 p.m.).

Matchday Three will be played on Thursday with one fixture pitting together Olimpia Cluj and SU 1° Dezembro (5 p.m.) at the Centenary Stadium. Birkirkara-Glentoran kicks off at the same time but at the National Stadium.

The qualifying round will see 32 teams split in eight groups, all vying for the top placing and the two best runners-up spots. Those qualifying will join the 22 top-ranked teams in the round of 32, the draw of which will be made on August 23.

Lyon won the women’s Cham-pions League last season.

The French side beat Frankfurt 2-0 in the final in Munich. The 2013 final will be played in London.